June 20, 2008 -- London, UK - The Association for Geographic Information (AGI) has announced the full conference programme for their 2008 Annual Conference. The theme of AGI GeoCommunity ’08, ‘Shaping a Changing World’, is designed to address topical issues, such as such as climate change, globalisation, neogeography, mobile technology, 3D visualisations, legislative and policy drivers, business models and ROI, all of which are grounded in or central to the use of geographic information. A packed conference programme will kick off with keynote presentations from Sean Phelan, Founder of Multimap, Vanessa Lawrence, Director General of the Ordnance Survey, Charlie Pattinson of the Environment Agency and Charles Kennelly of ESRI (UK).

The event, which will take place from the 23rd to 25th of September 2008 at the Holiday Inn, Stratford Upon Avon, UK, has been the flagship event of the UK geographic information industry for more than ten years, attracting practitioners, academics and policy makers with a world-class conference programme, showcase exhibition and networking opportunities.

“Each year we receive a tremendous response to the call for papers, and each year we wonder how the following year can get any better,” said Chris Holcroft, Director and CEO of the AGI. “But each year we receive ever more high quality submissions, from which the Conference Working Group put together an outstanding and highly germane line-up of material.”

The conference programme will also include senior representatives from organisations such as the Office for National Statistics, University College London, The Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), HM Land Registry, Halcrow, Atkins and the British Geological Survey with papers ranging from ‘Before and After; Understanding the Local Impact of 2012’ to ‘Tackling Climate Change – Local Planning for a Global Crisis’ and ‘Mapping Health Information’ to ‘Public Access to Crime Information’.

“The combination of high calibre keynote presentations, the promise of a topical yet stimulating conference programme and a showcase of the best technology and services available combined with hands on workshops, lively debate and networking opportunities has already attracted above target delegate bookings for this stage of our preparations,” continued Holcroft. “By taking our Early-Bird rates, delegates can ensure onsite accommodation and achieve savings of up to 30% on published delegate fees. However, these places are limited in number so we are encouraging prompt action to prevent disappointment.”